vulcan
/ˈvʌlkən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.27 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
The god of volcanoes and fire, especially the forge, also the patron of all craftsmen, especially blacksmiths. The Roman counterpart of Hephaestus.
name
A placename.
name
A placename.
name
A placename.
name
A placename.
name
A placename.
name
A placename.
name
A placename.
Example Sentences
- "The goddess Venus was the wife of Vulcan."
- "But I perceiue nowe that all red colloured stones are not Rubies, nether is euery one Alexander that hath a stare in his cheke, al lame men are not Vulcans, nor hooke nosed men Ciceroes, nether each professor a poet."
- "When Mercury's orbit was discovered to deviate from the predictions from Isaac Newton's laws of gravity, astronomers hypothesized the existence of planet Vulcan, whose gravity could be used to affect Mercury in such a way that Newton's laws were obeyed."
- "How ſay you fryer Robert, out of what foꝛge came theſe warlike engins? they were hammered in Salamanca the ſeuenth day of March, 1602. and are as you ſee, read hote. But what Vulcan was the woꝛkeman of them?"
- "Cingis-chan (as Haithon and others ſay, his contemporaries) was at firſt by profeſſion a Vulcan or Black-ſmith, by condition a good honeſt ſimple man: […]"
- "Dis ille aduersis genitus fatoque sinistro, / Quem pater ardentis massae fuligine lippus / A carbone et forcipibus gladiosque paranti / Incude et luteo Volcano ad rhetora misit."
Etymology
From Middle English Vulcan, Vulcanus, Wlcan, from Old English Ulcanus (genitive), from Classical Latin Vulcānus, probably from Etruscan although very unclear, but unknown meaning and further origin (see more in Latin entry). Doublet of bolcane and volcano. Etymology 1, proper noun sense 2.5 (“hypothetical planet”) is a semantic loan from French Vulcan, coined by French physicist, mathematician and astronomer Jacques Babinet in 1846, who proposed this name after the god for a planet close to the Sun. Noun senses etymology 1 1 (“blacksmith; metalworker”), etymology 1 2 (“one who is lame”), and etymology 1 3 (“fire”) are allusions to Vulcan as the god of fire and metalworking and his lameness. Compare Middle French Vulcan (“blacksmith; metalworker”), also attested in early modern French meaning “fire” in apparently isolated use. Etymology 1, noun sense 4 (“volcano”) is from Middle English wlcane, originally after Middle French Vulcan, wlcan, and chiefly after Spanish volcán in subsequent use, ultimately arising from Latin Vulcānus and Italian Vulcano as a name for Mount Etna and one or more of the Aeolian Islands (with active volcanoes on the islands now called Vulcano and Stromboli), probably after Arabic بُرْكَان (burkān, “volcano”), ultimately reflecting the Latin and Italian place names.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈvʌlkən/
- British English: /ˈvʌlkən/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Vulcan County
Vulcan chess
Vulcan death grip
Vulcan grip
Vulcan mind meld
Vulcan nerve pinch
Vulcan salute
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
la:Mulciber
Spock